Vampire's Folly
by ElliotJA
Summary: Varnae was the king of vampires in the days before Atlantis sank. One night, he meets a girl who is more than she appears.


In the days before the coming of the Third Host of the Celestials and the Great Cataclysm that destroyed the elder civilisations, the vampire lord Varnae, having been driven from Atlantis, led his surviving followers to the country of Valusia on the Thurian continent. At this time, Valusia and most of the other Thurian nations were in decline, so it was not too difficult for Varnae to establish a power base in this land. From his headquarters in a ruined palace in a deep forest, he kept the surrounding country in a stranglehold of terror that would not be equalled for nearly twenty millennia, when Count Dracula rose to power. With the fall of night, he sent his minions forth to scour the land for victims. Lonely inns were besieged; those within not immediately slaughtered being carried screaming back to Varnae's lair. Any travellers foolish enough to be outside in the dark were likewise set upon. And with each new victim of the vampires' deprivations, another member was added to the obscene cult.

On one moonless night, a group of Varnae's spawn, flying somewhat further than they had before in the form of gigantic bat-monsters, came upon a small Atlantean settlement that had been founded on the mainland some years earlier. Their nostrils scented living blood, and their keen eyes picked out the shapes of people moving in the streets below. Screeching their demonic hunger and mirth, the vampires swooped down on the surprised and terrified villagers, who had never known the fiends to come this way in the past. The evening was spattered with blood as the flying horrors satisfied their lusts, before taking to the sky with a couple of screaming captives clutched in their talons, to be delivered to their overlord. They cackled derisively at the cries of rage far below them. Such was their power, none in these lands had the strength or courage to mount an effective strike against them.

It was a few nights later that two vampires, exploring the woods around their keep, discovered what they would never have expected: A lone, living woman along among the ancient trees. She was young and beautiful, her hair a magnificent blonde, and when she caught sight of the creatures stalking her, she tried to flee, but her pursuers were too fast for her. Just as one of them was about to pierce the skin of the girl's neck with his fangs, the other cried out "Hold! Let us bring the wench to the master! He will favour us if we bring him such an exquisite gift!"

"You are right, blood-brother!" his comrade hissed excitedly. "Quickly, let us hasten!" With the girl held securely between them, the vampires soared through the shadowy forest.

"Please!" the girl whimpered, tearing flowing down her fair face. "Please, I beg of you….If there be any humanity left within you, let me go!" But the only response to her pleas was cold laughter.

Varnae himself sat on his throne in the banqueting hall of his cobweb and moss-infested castle. The supreme lord of the un-dead was a truly horrifying sight to behold; his gigantic form fleshy and swollen like a nightmarish slug, his eyes sickly yellow slits in his bestial face, and a large goblet filled with dark-red liquid held to his fanged maw. His courtiers were all around him, most of them with their mouths fastened onto the necks of pale, barely conscious prisoners, greedily drinking their flowing life-juices. They had been hounded in Atlantis, but here in this forsaken realm, they could indulge their unholy habits freely.

Varnae's attention was swiftly drawn to the girl dragged into the chamber by two of his offspring. "Master!" one of the vampires holding her announced. "We found this in the woods, and have brought her to you to taste! Is she not beguiling, lord?"

Varnae studied the girl intently, taking in her smooth skin, her full hair falling over her bare, well-developed shoulders and back…And his mouth curved in a lustful smile, blood dripping from his chin and onto his broad chest. "Yes, my subjects," he growled. "You have done well this night." He beckoned with his clawed hand. "Bring her to me, at once." There was no hesitation in his acolytes as they shoved their trembling captive into their lord's embrace.

The girl shuddered at the deathly cold feel of the king-vampire's hands on her skin. Varnae's tongue flicked out to caress her cheek as he said "You are most fortunate, my dear, to be in the presence of Lord Varnae. Tonight marks the beginning of a new existence of ecstasy and power for you. I will take your body and your blood, and in return, I shall give you immortality." The girl kept her eyes tightly shut. "Look at me, child," Varnae commanded, "And tell me your name."

She opened her eyes then, and a change seemed to come over her as she locked onto him with a steely glare. "My name, vampire, is Zhered-Na…And I have come to hurt you." Too quickly for anyone to react, her entire body was suddenly lit aflame with a shockingly brilliant light that radiated through the chamber like a star come down from the heavens. As one, Varnae and his foul retinue shrieked in pain and fear as the light touched them and caused their skins to blister. Shielding his eyes, Varnae flung Zhered-Na away from him, but the blaze did not lessen. The girl got to her feet and stood amongst the screaming, writhing monsters too agonised to resist her.

"This be not true sunlight," she yelled, "But it is close enough, and hurts you just as much, vermin! Valka's power flows through me, and he bids you burn for your crimes! And do not try to escape, for my magic holds you rooted to the spot!" The light emanating from her form intensified, spreading all through the castle, visible for miles around. Varnae roared, and long-dead flesh smoked and blackened.

When the light finally died away to nothing, Zhered-Na stood in a chamber filled with piles of ash, what was left of the vampires. Varnae's charred skeleton lay on the floor a few inches from the throne. Zhered-Na had not been there on the night the vampires attacked the Atlantean village, and so had been unable to save those taken. But Valka had spoken to her, and now they, and all the other poor souls that had been destroyed by the monsters, were avenged. The young sorceress gave a silent prayer of thanks to her god as the first golden-pink wisps of dawn appeared over the treetops.

For the next few years, Varnae's bones mouldered amid the dust of his spawn in the shunned ruins. But some evils are too great to ever be stamped out totally, and it was not long before an ominous shadow fell on the remains of the vampire lord….

_NOTE: The character of Varnae first appeared in _Bizarre Adventures _#33. Zhered-Na debuted in _Adventures into Fear _#15._


End file.
